Current weather

Grovetown officials expect to approve a plan Monday that might change the look of the city center.

“All the council, they’ve seen the (presentation) and I haven’t heard any negativity out of them whatsoever,” Mayor George James said of an Urban Redevelopment Plan the city council will consider during their monthly meeting.

Grovetown residents were able to view the plan, which city officials developed with the CSRA Regional Commission, during a public meeting last week.

Children need to dig out their baskets as the Easter bunny soon will leave behind a few thousand hidden treats.

The bunny will visit the Harlem City Park from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. Saturday for the city’s eighth annual Easter Egg Hunt.

About 2,000 eggs, including some prize eggs, will be hidden on the park’s three athletic fields, said event organizer Denise Carter. Children will be divided into three groups – ages 1 to 3, 4 to 6, and 7 to 10.

A popular bluegrass festival and barbecue cook-off is moving to Evans.

The third annual Papa Joe’s Banjo-B-Que, a two-day festival, will be held at Evans Towne Center Park May 25-26.

The festival, which attracted national musical acts and 72 competition barbecue cooking teams last year, was held at the Hippodrome in North Augusta the past two years, said Christy Beckham, an event organizer with sponsor AB Beverage in Evans.

At the monthly city council meeting, they approved placing a Sunday sales referendum on the ballot in the July 31 primary election. In January, they asked City Attorney Barry Fleming to draw up the necessary resolutions to place the referendum on the primary ballot.

The referendum would allow the sale of packaged alcohol at convenience, grocery and package stores from 12:30-11z;30 p.m. on Sunday.

The trial of former Columbia County Commissioner and accused child molester Scott Dean resumed Tuesday morning, with the victim in the case telling jurors Dean molested her.

Dean, 42, is accused of exposing himself to and inappropriately touching his daughter, one of five children he and his wife adopted from Guatemala in 2008.

That daughter, who has been out of the Dean household and living in foster care since January, testified with the help of a translator that Dean came into her room one night, laid in her bed and touched her private areas.

Dozens of local officials, celebrities and media personalities will be serving lunch at the 11th annual Italian Thanksgiving Feast on Monday at The Garlic Clove restaurant in Evans.

The annual dinner raises funds for Columbia County Cares food pantry and the Golden Harvest Food Bank, in which diners receive a meal from a set menu in return for monetary donations to the food banks.

State labor officials have opened an investigation into a dispute between workers who said they expected to be paid for providing scares at a Martinez haunted house and the owner who insists they were volunteers.

About 70 of the mostly teen employees met Monday to vent their frustration and form a plan of action to get paid.

The staff worked at Terror Town, a haunted house on Wheeler Road, from late September through Oct. 31.